Time Scar
by Wakingupto42
Summary: The voyage of the crew and The Christa is coming near completion. Reality is rapidly approaching. (Formerly "Chrono")
1. Chapter 1

**Space Cases Fanfiction:** Time Scar

**Rating: **PG-13 for violence and mild language

**Time Scar**

**Prelude**

A crimson dot - it appears from nothing and begins to spread - across her blue shirt. It begins just below her left breast and quickly paints outward along the fabric in a purple wave. She feels nothing but morbid fascination at the sponge-like quality of her clothing. The shirt was ruined for sure - completely stained by her own blood.

_Why_? She thought. Her short red hair shifted across her forehead where it clung, heavily from sweat, as she looked to see if anyone else could see the spreading stain.

There was a great amount of fire and smoke. Funny that she did not feel choked by it or feel the heat from the flames. Two men stood nearby. The first - before her - stood in shock, a blaster trembled in his hand and she noted the slow roll of white smoke curling from the end of the barrel. It matched the streaks of white in his hair, a slight roll starting at the temples. His blue eyes glazed over with a war of emotions.

Faintly she heard a steady noise. Drip - drip - drip. Despite the fire she was beginning to feel cold.

"What did you do?" The second man, behind her, asked. His voice was choked, but not by the haze of smoke filling the large room.

She turned to address him but dizzied herself by doing so. She began to topple and the second man caught her about the shoulders and waist. He looked identical to the first man. _Twins. _She thought fleetingly. She felt herself float to the ground, barely able to register the warmth of his hands on her body.

He was lowering her to the ground. Nausea and fatigue washed over her and she became limp in the cradle of his arms. He tilted her head up using the crevice of one arm and his other hand finished brushing away her bangs from her clammy forehead.

Her eyes became heavy and she no longer fought the urge to close them. The two men faded from her vision. Somewhere from outside the darkness of her eyelids came his voice again - familiar and soothing.

"TJ. Hang in there."

She felt her lips part and a voice that might have been her own, "It's all going to be okay. I saved you this time... I. Saved. You."

The steady dripping she had heard gave way to a drumming. A steady rhythm - _just like a clock._

"Please, stay..." his voice cracked.

She heard nothing more. The cold and the dark enveloped her. The clock stopped.


	2. Frozen Flames

**Space Cases Fanfiction:** Time Scar

**Rating:** PG-13 violence and mild language

**Chapter 2**

**Time Scar**

_**Frozen Flames**_

TJ Davenport uncontrollably yelled out as she sat straight up in bed, hands gripping, white knuckled around the sheets.

Clutching the fabric she drew it protectively toward her chest and neck as if to ward away the ice cold shiver that ran through her bones. The hair on her neck and arms stood on end as an electric current of gooseflesh broke across her skin from base of spine to top of her scalp. Her heart fluttered wildly within her chest trying to push out of its snug position. Davenport tried to calm the panic by taking deep breaths - waiting for her eyes to adjust to the darkness of the room.

The bedroom she now called her own since the journey aboard The Christa began was empty save for her. A small line of dimly glowing emergency lights, showing the way from the room, sat in their usual places along the floor. All was as it should be under the red hue of the lights - splashing a bit of warmth into the usual cold machinery of the ship. _A splash of red on a blue backdrop. _

Davenport's breathe hitched as a sharp cramp started just beneath her left breast. It throbbed and thrummed in time with her beating heart before fading away. She whispered for the lights to turn on and in a few seconds the whole room was bathed in white light. Davenport blinked several times to adjust her eyes and scanned the room once more. Indeed, she was alone. Her panic subsided.

"Time?" She called out to the room.

A monotone voice replied, "0800 hours."

Davenport allowed her strangling grip on her bed sheets to loosen and she let a deep sigh go with it. For all the days that they did not have class, she still never slept in past 0500. Her body was hardwired to waking early in the morning with or without prompting by an alarm. Slipping from bed - through the haze of sleep that still encased her mind - Davenport made her way across the room toward the private bathroom afforded her by the design of the ship. The shower automatically came to life and steam started filling the space rapidly. It amazed Davenport, even 6 years into their adventure, that the ship had learned or customized itself to each crew member's personal habits.

Letting the hot water run over her hair, down over her shoulders, and ever downward over her skin, she imagined the previous stress running away with the water toward the drain. She mused that perhaps something from dinner had not agreed with her system, as she remembered having odd dreams. At the time they were incredibly lucid - as if they were actually happening - but now under the guise of the waking body she could barely recall them. She looked forward to a hot mug of tea soon to restore balance to her system.

As her body relaxed into the beating water pressure, the noise became like a constant static behind her thoughts. Davenport let her eyes slide shut and she began to contemplate how she would manage to catch up to her 'day-off' schedule. _I'm already so far behind…_

The ship lurched violently, upsetting the sensors that usually kept its contents from feeling the effects of space. Davenport had one moment of vision - the shower wall coming towards her - and then a sharp blur of white and then nothing.

The bowels of the ship, once cold and slumbering, began to stir back to life. For many years she had been asleep - allowing time to flow along toward the inevitable abyss - now the pulse of the living warmed her into consciousness. Her body had been dormant from its creation. Her mind forced to wait.

_What am I waiting for? _

In secret, bolts and flesh began to move as she pushed herself out of her protective encasement. The extension made room for her at her own will. A new room is born around her. Inside it - darkness enveloping her body - as she begins to stretch each limb out, groping for something to find purchase on. It is so dark that there seems to be an endless space and yet she feels confined. She feels cold and groggy from her long sleep but alive as she only ever imagined.

_What is the cause of my rebirth?_

… And then she felt another's presence.

_**Who are you?**_

The woman stood near by looking around in the dark and her red hair was visible only because the girl was accustomed to the blackness. The woman looked confused. She could hear her heart beat - fast and erratic. She reached into the woman with her own soul - feeling, stretching, testing. The woman was afraid and tried to resist her efforts. Terrified of the dark and the cold. She referred to it all in her mind as a dream - nightmare. She repeated to herself to wake up.

The girl felt, for the first time in her new form, the sensation of surprise - and then - cruel amusement. _She must be my champion if her spirit is drawn here at my awakening. I ask for a lion and have received a mouse._

TJ Davenport. That was the name given to her as the original. She had stolen her away some time ago, but for what purpose, she could not remember.

A name - _What is my name?_

She searched outward, beyond the shivering woman. She felt along the walls of the room and pushed beyond. There was the rest of her body, a pulsing creation of living and machine, now so intertwined as to never be separated but in death. _That's right… I am the ship, now._ The girl felt a swell of hot anger and vengeance rise into her chest. The rest of the ship rocked and pulsed, shuddering mechanical pieces apart. They had succeeded in creating their monster. _And what a monster I shall be. _

She found each of the other occupants as they raced around inside her extremities. Each a part of her in a miniscule way. Their fates sealed when they bonded to her so long ago. Pawns to be spread upon the board. A knight and the king to be delivered - per the agreement not yet made.

And there was her name. _Christa.__** They will remember it for all time. **_ TJ Davenport flinched away from the thunderous sound of her voice.

Christa's consciousness returned to the room and once again she began to probe the woman before her. _My queen - to be sacrificed. _She felt herself harden towards this woman - her weakness sickening. It could not be helped - _**I will show you the universe. It will either sharpen you into the weapon I need or completely unravel your existence.**_

"Who is there?!" Davenport squeaked out, shivering more violently.

_**I am everything and nothing - all the same. **_Even as she said the words, Christa felt her hands reaching out for the woman. These hands were small and fragile. They were the hands of a child - unfitting for the vast being held within. She needed to fulfill the connection that was never completed when TJ Davenport touched her for the first time so many years ago. Christa spread her arms outward toward the woman's heart and lips. When her palms reached the bewildered woman - _all the years lost in the cold void_ - to feel the warmth of another life, the hum of its heart, the throb of blood through the veins - she was startled by the air freely moving in and out. And then she pulled it all into herself. _**And now, so are you.**_

TJ Davenport became still, her heart returned to its steady rhythm. Her blue eyes seemed to finally focus on Christa.

_**You are my eyes and ears now. You must come find me. **_

"Where are you?" Davenport asked calmly.

_**I am here. You must find me. Break the shell - I cannot break it from within.**_

"I will find you," the woman said in a determined way that would shock her companions.

_**Save me - **_The Christa was startled as her grasp on the woman was severed by an outside source.

"Miss Davenport!" Rosie screeched in despair, reaching into the shower stall and overriding the water controls to shut them off. The steady stream of ice cold droplets ceased and Suzee entered behind the young mercurian to kneel on the wet metal where their teacher lay in a naked heap.

Davenport tried to fill her lungs with a full breath of air but could not. _I'm frozen! _she thought wildly and began to shiver violently again, contracting her muscles and forcing the air from her once more. Her head pounded and her vision spun slowly in circles. Through the haze she barely heard the deep voice of concern that was Commander Goddard inquiring about her status.

Suzee called back, "It looks like she fell and hit her head during one of those surges we had!"

Rosie added, "She's got a laceration on her forehead, but it's not bleeding anymore. Probably concussed. I'm more worried about how long she's been laying under this cold water…"

As the voices became more coherent and her vision slowly began to focus Davenport found her tongue, "I'm okay, Rosie. Can you help me up?"

Rosie glanced at her for a moment with worry but held her down in place with one hand before asking, "Does your neck hurt?"

Davenport felt the smile break over her features. Ever the medical student, Rosie was running her patient through the routine. She lifted a hand and placed it over the young Mercurian's warm palm that pressed down on her shoulder.

"I'm fine, Rosie. My head feels like it split open and I am absolutely chilled to the bone."

Suzee grabbed a towel and her oversized robe. Rosie clenched the fabric in her hands briefly and concentrated her own body heat into them before helping TJ to sit on the edge of the vanity area chair. Davenport felt herself sigh with relief as first the towel was wrapped around her and then the robe. Suzee tied the robe shut and the warmth of the fabric seeped into her skin. Davenport allowed herself a moment to enjoy the sensation before fully opening her eyes to the light of the bathroom.

Her two female charges stood before her, looks of uncertainty spread across their faces. Suzee had a small wrap of sterile flesh secured along her forearm and several smears of engine fluid wiped across her cheeks. Rosie's chin was stained a deep turquoise - the mercurian version of a bruise. Davenport sighed heavily.

"What happened?" Davenport asked.

The two girls looked at each other once as if to quickly corroborate their story. Rosie stepped closer to her and began assessing her own damage more thoroughly. It was Suzee who began to speak.

"I'm not sure how long you were awake, but we were all doing morning Compost duty when the power began to surge. It started as just a few flickers of the minor systems… around I'd say 0745... Just small electrical pulses. The Commander and I went down to the engine room to run diagnostics when the surges began to increase. The last few were horrific. We thought the ship was going to break apart." Suzee paused here but must have noted the way Davenport was inspecting her arm for she added, "Everyone got tossed around pretty good."

Rosie probed near Davenport's head and she hissed in pain when the sting traveled into her eyes. She felt them water but suppressed the urge to let them become tears. Davenport took a brief moment to collect herself. Most likely symptoms from a concussion, she felt oddly empty, a knot in her chest and a humming inside her head. TJ Davenport felt much like she was forgetting something very important.

His voice cut through the heavy silence, "Is everything okay in there, ladies?"

"Everything is fine, Commander," Rosie said warmly and opened the bathroom door.

Goddard entered the space briskly, TJ watched his eyes rapidly scan each crevice and fixture, taking in and already assessing scenarios of what had happened. His eyes finally rested on her - the weight of them heavy - her heart missed a step. Concern moved across his features while he took her in.

"Are you alright?" he shifted, uncomfortably.

"I feel fine, considering. Thank you." Her voice sounded like it was coming from a great distance.

Rosie interjected, "I'd like to run some tests on her just to see how badly she may be concussed. I also would like to seal up that laceration and get the swelling down. Maybe you could help Miss Davenport to the Medlab. I'll meet you down there."

Suzee stood up from the floor and added, "Great. I can head back to the guys and see if I can make heads or tails of what happened. The Commander can fill you in on the rest."

Both girls smiled and nearly fled from the bathroom, leaving one awkward looking Commander and his barely concealed charge. Davenport felt abandoned and stared wide-eyed at the open doorway the girls had vanished from. _What has gotten into them? _She wondered before her gaze traveled back to the man standing before her.

The earlier look of concern had moved off and had been replaced with a scowl of frustration while he watched the girls move off further, out of the bedroom and into the hallway. His eyes drifted back onto her before the rest of his head made the turn, an unsure smile trying itself out on his face. The Commander cleared his throat, but did not manage to make a remark.

This sort of awkward interaction was not new for them. TJ recalled the moment they began to share these exchanges. They had been collecting supplies on a friendly planet some months ago and enjoying a bit of shore leave as well. The friendliness of the planet had come with stipulations - as they always did - but this one left quite the impression. Despite her near enslavement to a rather available bachelor merchant, TJ remembered the place with fondness. In order to avoid her being taken by another crew, Goddard was forced to 'mark' her as his. This, of course, was the cause of their new found difficulties - a kiss.

Davenport felt the heat of a developing blush thinking about the gentle pressure he had used when he placed his lips on hers.

"If you think you'll be okay alone, change into uniform. I'll escort you to medlab. A lot has happened in the past 2 hours," Goddard's crisp voice cut through her reminiscing.

When she looked at him finally, her blush evaporated into the air. Before her stood the soldier - the STARDOG - the friendly, warm hearted man she had gotten to know along this journey gone behind the mask. She envied his ability to conceal himself.

"That would be nice, thank you. I'll be right out."

Goddard gave her a short nod and left the bathroom, the door swishing closed once more. His words 'a lot has happened' still hung in the air. TJ stood shakily and turned to the mirror. A long gash stretched from the middle of her forehead and curved down along to end near her right temple. The skin around it was swollen and a deep shade of purple. Her head still pounded, but not with the ferocity it had upon regaining consciousness.

Reaching for her fresh clothing, still laid out on the vanity where she had placed them earlier, TJ once again felt as though she were forgetting something. She dressed quickly, taking care not to move too fast and instigate another wave of dizziness. _What am I forgetting? _she thought desperately as she waved her hand in front of the door mechanism.

The door slide open to reveal her bedroom, Goddard standing solemnly in the middle of the familiar area. He turned toward her and opened his mouth to speak - the room went dark.

The stars were out in the vast sky that night. They twinkled and let their shine flow down upon her and her father. She loved this time of the week - when her father came home from Star Academy and they stayed up stargazing. The simulated grass beneath them made hushing noises when they moved.

A small finger pointed upwards and directly at a small flickering dot in the sky.

"What's that one's name?"

"That one is Earth," her father said.

"Do they all have names?"

He chuckled, "Of course not. There are many we haven't even been to. Many more you can't even see from here."

"There's more? When can I go see them? Now?"

"Goodness no. By the time you got back you would be an old lady and I would be an even older old man!"

"No, Daddy. We could stop time. Then go see them all. We would come back and no one would know! Then all those lonely planets would have names."

Silly girl. You can't stop time. It flows and never stops. I think it doesn't have the patience to slow down - for anyone - not even you, TJ. Just like you, it never stops or slows down. Full of energy!"

"But…"

"Don't trouble yourself with such fantasies. Stick to your studies and you'll be fine."

The clock began to tick-tock once more. The hands spinning ever faster. She wavered. Bile rising into the back of her throat.

_**You cannot leave me here. Save me.**_

She stumbled. She fell into the darkness of the void.

_**Come find me.**_


End file.
